Madness Reigns - First Master's Deck Chapter 23

This is my first Master's deck! It is about 95% complete, and fun as heck. The mana is a little wobbly, and it's not 100% tweaked, but if you are tired of losing to VaraReturn, Caiphus or Azindel, this is the deck to do it. And while creatureless control decks beat it about 65% of the time, I've won a few with ever-returning Vara's of my own.

I tried many colors and iterations of a Madness/Devour frame before hitting on this one. All the others had me hanging around Diamond 1-2. I worked mainly with P/S, P/J/S frames, but they usually lacked a cohesive early game.

Grenadin Drone into Ripknife is usually enough to blunt Time/Fire and Fire/Primal, and the Drone has proven one of the missing links in moving the deck into Master.

Cards thoughts

Madness Self-explanatory , but it's especially good in this meta for several reasons.

1: The creatures people are building are ridiculously powerful. Vara/Caiphus/Azindel are just the primary examples; there are a dozen OP meta-defining monsters to steal and sacrifice.

2: Because there are so many ridiculous monsters, Dark Return is also broken. Varas are regularly getting to 8/9 and higher. The third rise of Caiphus is almost always game over. And 2 turns with Azindel on the board is a rout. Madness/sacrifice gives you access to these critters, but as important also denies them to your opponent's void.

Cauldron Cookbook - Finally, red has access to card draw as good or better than any other color. With Vara/Amethyst Monument and OPV (other people's Varas), the odds of dying to Cauldron is relatively small. I have yet to die to it and I've drawn up to 10 cards in a game. This card single-handedly returns Fire to viability for things other than aggro decks.

Last Chance- Greatly underutilized card. If Dark Return is an auto-4 of in many decks, Last Chance is a very close second. In some games, it's better, as it allows you to recast Vara when you're stuck on 4 power, or a Caiphus you stole from someone on 6. That happens quite often as the mana isn't perfect yet and if you don't draw the Cookbook you can get stuck. Part of that may be my fault, as I often trade my 5th/6th mana to the market.

Sleeping Draught - A tech 1-of (2nd in the market). This card has worked quite well, often allowing me to bring back a Vara during an opponents turn. I look forward to playing with it more, but unlike some cards it's retained its spot in the deck so far.

Betray the Cause- A more expensive Madness. Some might call this overkill, but it's simply the reliability of the combo that requires it's inclusion. I am able to Warp it every once in a while, but it and Sacrifice give you your combo at the same Power as Madness/Devour. The deck is built around denying pretty much all of your opponents biggest threats (assuming they're creatures, of course), and BTC allows you to do that with surprising reliability.

Burglarize- Any shadow deck not running Burglarize is doing it wrong. The inclusion of the Market cards allows more diversity in deck-building due to the ability to trade out unusable cards. And with the number of Relic-centered decks running around, I maindeck Burglarize in any Shadow deck. Forcing a control deck to discard their entire hand to their own Amulet of Azindel is about the most satisfying thing in Eternal. Xenan Obelisk centered decks are often crippled at the loss of one. And with an early version of the deck I killed someone with double Tormenter's after stealing two Masks of Torment.

Potential Changes - The Market doesn't feel quite right. Most of my earlier versions ran both a Madness and Devour in the Market, increasing the reliability of the combo. However, by adding Betray the Cause and Combust I feel like I have the pieces as I need them most of the time. In another version Plague was a card that worked quite well against many aggro builds, and I am considering putting it back in.

Update 1: Of course the first game I trade Betray the Cause for a Plague in the Market, I'm stuck without a Steal card for 10 turns. I squeaked out a win vs. S/J Revenge via Cauldron Cookbook (I got as low as 4 life at one point), which this deck is particular good against. By end of game, I had stolen a Inquisitor Makto, Stonepowder Alchemist and a Vara. BTC going back in the side, I'll pull the 2nd Sleeping Draught for the Plague for now.

Update 2: Updated the mana per Ninjacan's suggestion (thanks!). All my other decks have at least 4 seats/crest's. This one was on such a winning streak I didn't want to upset any magic balance it had going, but yes, that's the right thing to do!=)

Update 3: Went from 1800 to 1600. Put 1 Combust in Market to have sacrifice and steal both there. Removed the Draught's, they just weren't quite there. I hit quite a few Aggro builds, so added 2 Suffocate's. That's another card that could easily see be a 4-of in any Shadow deck. Marketeer's are in every deck I've seen; even most creatureless builds have the white, which is one of the best targets for Suffocate, especially early. Burglarize continues to outperform! Best moment of the day was stealing 2 Chalice's from a rank 1000 player.=)